Delta Air Lines Increases Flight Attendant, Ground Workers Wages by 5%, Boosts Starting Pay

By Madz Dizon

Apr 22, 2024 10:42 PM EDT

Delta Air Lines Increases Flight Attendant, Ground Workers Wages by 5%, Boosts Starting Pay — A Boeing 767 passenger aircraft of Delta airlines arrives from Dublin at JFK International Airport in New York as the Manhattan skyline looms in the background on February 7, 2024.
(Photo : CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

Delta Air Lines is raising the minimum wage for all employment and increasing compensation for specific groups.

Earlier today, Delta Air Lines announced that the airline's starting wage would be increased to $19 per hour.

Delta Air Lines Raises Flight Attendants' Pay, Boosts Starting Wage

This new minimum applies mostly to frontline positions such as ramp and gate agents, and it is one of Delta's most recent investments in industry-leading pay.

Today's statement also includes a 5% wage hike for flight attendants and ground staff, affecting over 80,000 employees in total.

According to AP News, CEO Ed Bastian stated that during the last two years, the airline has invested 20-25% on the compensation of various workgroups and emphasized the company's profit-sharing scheme.

Since 2007, the program has disbursed more than $11 billion. Despite being a profit leader, Delta's flight attendants do not earn the highest wages or perks among US airlines.

Delta's flight attendants are currently facing an attempt to unionize by the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), as Delta is the only major US carrier whose flight attendants are not unionized.

Since 2000, three attempts to unionize have failed, but the AFA is working to garner enough support to compel a ballot. There is speculation that Delta has raised the salary of flight attendants in order to swing the situation in its favor.

Last November, the Teamsters, the country's largest and most diverse union, announced the formation of a coalition to organize over 50,000 Delta employees.

Delta Air Lines Faces Another Union Attempt

Teamsters, in collaboration with the AFA and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace personnel (IAM), is aiming to organize technicians, flight attendants, and ramp, cargo, and tower support personnel. The AFA intends to compel a vote before the end of the year.

The Association of Flight Attendants is working to change that. President Sara Nelson stated that her union expects to collect enough permission cards from Delta employees by the end of the year to trigger another election.

"Delta has become the leader in generating profits, and that means Delta flight attendants should be leading on pay and benefits, and they are not," she went on to say.

Nelson feels that unions are in a better position now, even in the predominantly nonunion South, where the United Auto Workers won an election last week at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee. Nelson's union is pursuing an industry-leading contract with United Airlines, which might help its case at Delta, Detroit News reported.

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